UConn School of Nursing faculty Mallory Perry-Eaddy, Ph.D., RN, CCRN, Tiffany Kelley, Ph.D., MBA, RN, NI-BC, FNAP, and Gee Su Yang, Ph.D., RN, will be inducted as 2025 Fellows into the American Academy of Nursing this fall.

“The induction of Mallory, Tiffany, Gee Su, and our distinguished UConn Nursing alumni into the American Academy of Nursing represents a profound acknowledgment of their scholarly excellence and transformative impact on the nursing profession,” says Victoria Vaughan Dickson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Dean of the School of Nursing. “Their exemplary contributions to advancing health equity, shaping clinical practice, and informing health policy resonate on both national and global levels, embodying the highest ideals of academic and professional nursing leadership.”

The newest Fellows represent 42 states, the District of Columbia, and 12 countries. Their extensive expertise will enrich the thought leadership of the over 3,200 Academy Fellows who together advance the Academy’s mission of improving health and achieving health equity by impacting policy through nursing leadership, innovation, and science.

The inductees will be recognized at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference, taking place on October 16-18, 2025, in Washington, DC. This year’s conference theme is “Impact Through Integrity and Trust: Our Role as Navigators and Translators” which will focus on shaping the future of healthcare and fulfilling the Academy’s vision of “Healthy Lives for All People.”

“I cannot emphasize enough at this pivotal time in history the vital importance of recognizing this extraordinary and sizeable group of nurse leaders. With rich and varied backgrounds from practice, policy, research, entrepreneurship, and academia, they have been instrumental in using nursing’s holistic approach to improve the health of patients and communities throughout the world,” said Academy President Linda D. Scott, Ph.D., RN, NEA-BC, FADLN, FNAP, FAAN. “Induction into the Academy represents the highest honor in nursing. Earning the FAAN (Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing) credential is a prestigious recognition of one’s accomplishments and signifies the power of nursing to transform health and enact positive outcomes.”

Mallory Perry-Eaddy, Ph.D., RN, CCRN

Perry-Eaddy is an assistant professor whose research focuses on pediatric critical care outcomes as they relate to inflammation and social determinants of health.

Perry-Eaddy has been with the school for many years, receiving her BSN, Certificate in Pain Management, MS, and Ph.D. from the UConn School of Nursing. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2022, she was named a National Institute of Health (NIH) PRIDE Functional and Translational Genomics Scholar, and in 2021, she was named a NIH K99/R00 MOSAIC Scholar where she is currently completing her R00.

She is an active member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators, American Thoracic Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine where she is an editorial board member for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. She is also an invited advisory board member to the Sepsis Alliance.

“I am deeply honored and grateful to be inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing. This recognition affirms my commitment to advancing the science of pediatric critical care, with a focus on improving long-term outcomes for children after sepsis and critical illness,” said Perry-Eaddy. “Through my research, and as a Fellow, I aim to elevate survivor-centered care, address health disparities, and inform policy that supports recovery beyond the intensive care unit (ICU). I am excited to join this esteemed community of nurse leaders and to contribute to shaping the future of nursing and child health.”

Tiffany Kelley, Ph.D., MBA, RN, NI-BC, FNAP

Kelley is an in-residence professor and co-director of the Nursing and Engineering Innovation Center at UConn School of Nursing. She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University, MS and MBA from Northeastern University, and BSN from Georgetown University.

Kelley joined UConn in 2018 where she was appointed to serve as the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation Visiting Associate Professor for Innovations and New Knowledge, a first-of-its-kind role. Her goal was to develop and execute a strategic plan to integrate innovation into the core education across all degree programs. Outcomes of her pioneering initiatives have enabled her to co-direct the creation of a Nursing and Engineering Innovation Center and assist in the design of a unique Makerspace for the new School of Nursing building, further solidifying nursing’s innovation leadership at UConn.

Kelley’s impact in nursing spans across the nation and globe through her collective academic, intrapreneurial, inventive, and entrepreneurial roles in innovation, informatics, and associated leadership in nursing. Over the last 20 years, she has relentlessly worked to advance the nursing profession by expanding the boundaries of what is possible in nursing through her own journey in creating a novel pathway that straddles academia and industry while also educating and mentoring nurses and nursing students on how to create and develop their own intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial innovative solutions.

Her national and international recognition of impact is shown through her receipt of American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award, induction into the National Academies of Practice in Nursing as a Distinguished Fellow, and an invitation from Singapore’s Ministry of Health in 2024 to serve as a Health Manpower Development Visiting Expert on Innovation, Informatics, and Digital Health.

“Our future needs nurses who reimagine nursing and healthcare to create positive changes that address human health problems in this rapidly evolving digital age. We have not yet fully realized the benefits of digital health innovative tools on advancing nursing practice, workforce operations, and global health,” said Kelley. “As a Fellow, I aim to further my reach and serve as an exemplar for amplifying nurse-led innovation and digital health while leading others to do the same.”

Gee Su Yang, Ph.D., RN

Yang is an assistant professor at UConn and is recognized for her work in cancer survivorship, particularly in addressing cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances, pain, fatigue, and depressive symptoms, as well as symptom management strategies using multi-omics approaches. She has garnered numerous grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Oncology Nursing Foundation, Rockefeller University, American Nurses Foundation, American Society for Pain Management Nursing, Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, and the UConn Clinical Research and Innovation Seed Program.

She has played a central role in planning and conducting clinical cancer research focused on the adverse toxicities and symptoms of cancer treatment to optimize benefits from treatment. She actively engages with cancer survivors, oncologists, and community partners to enhance research participation, raise awareness, and promote education on cancer survivorship.

Her work pioneered investigations into the adverse effects and symptoms of emerging treatments, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy, as well as their behavioral and gut mechanisms in the precision health symptom science field.

In acknowledgment of the impact of her work, she was recognized as a prestigious Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar by the Rockefeller University Heilbrunn Family Center for Research Nursing for her immunotherapy-associated symptom research and its potential to advance the field. In addition, she was selected as a Butler-Williams Scholar by the National Institute on Aging to support her immunotherapy study in older adults.

Yang has also been tapped to serve as a review panelist for NIH study sections, the Oncology Nursing Foundation, UConn Research Excellence Program, and many more. Her work contributes to the growth of nurses and advocacy for scientific and professional development by influencing policy changes in research, supporting recognition of nurses’ achievements, and reviewing numerous conference abstracts, manuscripts, and scholarship applications in several professional societies.

“Being inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing is a great honor and recognition that motivates me to strengthen my program of research in precision health symptom science to advance scientific discoveries and benefit cancer survivors,” said Yang.

Congratulating our Fellows

Alumni Judith Hahn Ph.D. ‘14, Barbara Jacobs Ph.D. ‘02, Wendy Lord BS ’94, Lisa Sundean Ph.D. ’17, and Amy D’Agata MS ’04, Ph.D. ’15, were also selected as 2025 fellows, following a competitive, rigorous application process.

The School of Nursing would like to congratulate these newest Fellows as influential nursing leaders who are advancing health equity for all.